Complications
by MickyRC
Summary: When you run a secret organisation that deals with parallel universes and mythical monsters, you can bet at some point the Doctor will be paying you a call. Shortly after the Choten's betrayal, Duelists Nadia and Chavez meet the mysterious man in the box who shows up to help when things go awry. But will he actually be helpful? Or just another complication?


For the fifth time in as many days, Nadia Lobachevski woke up with her head on her desk in a panic. Looking around the room, with its glass walls looking out into an underground lake, her panic subsided as her nightmare faded away. Already she had forgotten what it was about, although it wasn't exactly hard to guess. There were no lack of things to be scared of in Nadia's world, but the past week had been worse than any she'd lived before. And her lack of sleep wasn't just because of nightmares—she was busier than ever, with barely enough time to sneak off for a nap, much less a full night's sleep.

Looking at the small clock on her desk, Nadia breathed a sigh of relief. She still had ten minutes before she was due to start her watch. Grabbing her new sleek black coat, she headed up to the War Room.

As she passed the library, she found herself walking with Hector Chavez, the Fire duelist who shared her watch. There were dark circles around his eyes, too. He was in the same boat she was: thrown into a job he didn't know how to do, mentor gone, and facing a crisis no one knew how to face. _At least he's not under suspicion for treachery_ , Nadia thought bitterly. But she knew that wasn't fair—it was entirely her own fault for having trusted Master Argus as much as she had.

"So… how's, um, how's… you know, uh, stuff?" Chavez said, awkwardly trying to make conversation without bringing up the events of the last week. The trouble was, for both him and Nadia, Kaijudo was their entire life. And Master Argus had been Nadia's teacher since she first earned her gauntlet, so almost anything reminded her of him. She decided not to reply, thinking Chavez might prefer to think she hadn't heard him. He was not to be deterred, though. "How's that translation coming along?"

Nadia was surprised. He had managed to find just about the only thing she could talk about without thinking of Master Argus. She had taught herself to read the ancient languages of the Creature Realm, an accomplishment which had brought her to the attention of duelists who had previously been skeptical of Master Argus's silent Russian acolyte. Shortly after that she had started dyeing her hair, adding colorful highlights to her longish light brown hair. It wasn't meant to be rebellious; it was just something to set her apart from the other acolytes.

Before she was able to respond, there was a massive whooshing, grinding, wheezing sound accompanied by a wave of air. They were in the big open area lined with statues, but now, dead smack dab in the middle of the space, stood a seven-foot high, three-foot square blue wooden box with a flashing lantern on top.

Without saying a word, both Nadia and Chavez powered up their gauntlets. They had been expecting an attack, although whatever this was was not what they had anticipated.

"'Police public call box'?" Chavez read. Both of them silently read the sign on the door, then looked at each other. The sign said "pull to open," but neither was sure if they should or not.

The decision was made for them as one of the doors swung in and a tall, skinny man wearing a blue suit with a dark red tie and ridiculously gelled hair stepped out. Nadia and Chavez immediately crouched into defensive positions.

The man looked surprised for a moment, and then his face split into an enormous grin. "Ah, Master Nadia! Been ages since I've seen you. Oh, you've changed your hair!" He looked at it for a moment. "I don't like it."

"Who—" Chavez began, but then the man turned on him.

"Chavez! Nice to see you again, loved the last time, that Rumbling Terrasour was a nuisance, but all good in the end." He kept grinning, seemingly unaware of how confused the other two were.

Just then the door of the box opened again, and a slightly stout red-head stepped out and looked around. "A cave?" she said with some variant on a British accent. "You've brought us to a cave?"

"It's not a cave!" the tall man said.

"It's a big cave, with statues!"

Nadia decided she had had enough. She wasn't sure who these two were or what they were arguing about, but odds were it was a distraction for something bigger. She summoned Rusalka.

Chavez had been thinking the same thing. Both of their creatures appeared in the hall, making the tall man smile yet wider and the woman look like she wanted to run back into the box.

"Aw, you're still fighting with Rusalka? Really I don't know why you wouldn't be, she's brilliant, but times do change…. Oh! That reminds me! How's little Sofia? She was ill last time I was here, how old is she now?"

Chavez had had enough. This man was odd, for sure, but how could he know about his little sister without knowing….

"Gilaflame, surround them!" he yelled, and in an instant the two people and their box were enclosed by a circle of flame.

Finally the man looked confused. Then something seemed to dawn on him. "Oh! I am an absolute thick-hea—"

He was cut off as a Stalker Sphere projecting an image of Master Brightmore flew in. "Chavez! Call off your creature immediately!"

"But Master Brightm—"

"These are distinguished guests. Both of you, banish your creatures this instant!"

Reluctantly, they did as they were told.

"Master Brightmore." The man had very suddenly turned serious. "I heard there was an issue."

"Yes. We are meeting in the council chamber. We will discuss it there." And with that, the stalker sphere flew away.

The man's smile returned. "Sorry about that whole thing. Timelines, you know, sometimes I meet people in the wrong order. I'm the Doctor, this is Donna. Now, we'd better get going, best not to leave Nigel waiting." And with that, he walked off, inexplicably knowing where he was going.

" _Nigel?_ " Chavez muttered under his breath.

"Doctor who?" Nadia wondered. She turned toward the red-haired woman, assuming she would know, but Donna was looking around, thoroughly amazed and a little bit frightened. Clearly this was no longer a big cave to her.

"Come on, Donna!" The Doctor shouted from the other end of the room, now walking backwards. "Alons-y!"

Donna snapped out of her daze and hurried toward her companion. "That was a giant lizard! Wearing armor!"

"It's called a Kaiju," the Doctor said, and he proceeded to explain the story of the Kaijudo order, though he was interrupted several times by snorts of disbelief and absurd connections that made a vague sort of sense from Donna.

Nadia and Chavez exchanged a glance, then hurried after the pair, wondering what new complication to their jobs they were about to learn about.


End file.
